I have often critiqued Apple for not approaching the CEDIA crowd, and how that would make them obsolete in the home within the next ten years. I am now finding out that while you will never see them at CEDIA, they are using their brand power to approach and army of manufacturers–under NDA’s most likely–to get the technology delivered to your home.
I just found this out from a life long friend and from who I consider a source that I would trust like a brother. Apple, some time ago, approached the owner of his company to help build out the future of Apple TV, which was being considered to consist of IPTV, integration with devices like DVD carousels, integration with X10 modules, UPB modules, and most importantly, Z-Wave modules and compatible devices, to give the ability to control your lighting and other smart devices in your home.
Apple wants to control your home just like Bill gates does. My lifelong friend’s CEO–a multi-billionaire entrepreneur–told him that while he would have considered partnering with Apple, he already is a platinum partner with Microsoft, and they have an agreement (non compete most likely?) which prevents them from working with Apple or folks who compete with the Microsoft MCE ecosystem.
The device which Apple and unknown partner/S is working on will do much more than the Apple TV of today. I believe that this is the reason for the delay with leopard. Apple is building functionality into the iPhone that will use TCP over Cingular’s CDMA network, and over 802.11 to connect to a server or server service running on either the Apple TV and/or Leopard.
Remember, Apple dropped the Computer off of their name. They are a consumer device company. I can see Apple releasing Apple TV ready thermostats, I can see them making automation very simple point and click. They will make it easy to setup, and easy to control, but they have a lot of work to do in order for me to take them seriously. Steve Jobs wasn’t lying when he said he pulled engineers to work on the iPhone, he just didn’t tell the whole story.
In my opinion Microsoft better get on the ball now if they are going to stay relevant. MCE needs to have these features built in off the rip, and they need to have a strategy for the home that not only complements their high end solutions partners, but provides at least some of the functionality that is being made commodities by the future of Apple’s Smarthome.
GeekSpeaker 
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